by Bobbie Christmas
Q: What is the most popular shipping agreement for when buyers want me to ship them a book?
A: I don’t know what is the most popular, but I pay the shipping when I order something, and when someone orders from me, I add a shipping charge. I think the buyer should pay the shipping fee, and if the buyer wants to return books for a refund, the buyer should pay the shipping again. I don’t think the seller should have to pay.
Q: In your article for the South Carolina Writers Workshop newsletter, you say, “We who have the editing gene must live with errors that show up so often that some people think they are correct. ‘I could care less,’ instead of ‘I couldn’t care less’ is one formation that makes me cringe when I see or hear it, but it crosses my path (and makes me cross) at least once a month.”
I agree with most of your points, but in this case, usually when someone says, “I could not care less,” they’re being honest. When they say, “I could care less,” they’re being ironic or sarcastic.
A: I beg to differ, and I’m not alone. When people say, “I could care less,” it means they care, which is not what the person really means. The intent is to say that they do not care at all; therefore, the correct term is “I could not (or couldn’t) care less.”
A cartoon that appeared in the November-December 2005 edition of SPELL/Binder, the official newsletter of the Society for the Preservation of English Language and Literature, supports my point. It shows a woman carrying a suitcase headed for the door while her husband sits in an easy chair watching TV. She says to him, “You could care less? Don’t you mean you couldn’t care less? That kind of crummy English is why I’m leaving.”
I have no idea how the misuse, “I could care less,” crept into our language, but the earnestness with which people defend it proves that it has been used incorrectly so long that people think it is right. We sticklers fight against mistaking the incorrect for the correct. Hey, some people still defend the use of “irregardless,” when the formation is not even a word. It is the incorrect blending of “regardless” and “irrespective.”
As an interesting addition, when I tried to send my answer by email, spellcheck highlighted the section that said, “I could care less” and remarked, “Misspelled expression. Consider ‘couldn’t’ instead.” It continued: “The real meaning of a sentence like ‘I could care less about their priorities’ is more logically phrased with ‘I couldn’t care less about their priorities.’ Even clearer is the paraphrase ‘Their priorities don’t concern me.’”
Thank you spellcheck, and the Society for the Preservation of English Language and Literature for backing me.
Q: Maybe you can refer my nonfiction book to an agent. I’m sure it would be lucrative for him or her because I would be willing to pay more than the normal commission, my main motivation being widest possible readership for my book, rather than profits.
A: Your request has several components that I must address.
First, I would never refer or recommend a manuscript that I have not read thoroughly and edited, and even then, I would refer or recommend only the absolute best of those. If I referred any book anyone wanted me to refer or even worse, paid me to refer, my contacts would have no respect for my referrals.
Next, legitimate agents do not change their fees from one client to the next, so to offer an agent a greater percentage than usual could be construed as a bribe and might be taken as an insult. Be careful.
Last of all, because your book is nonfiction, it may not require an agent. Consider writing a book proposal and submitting it to nonfiction publishers that accept unagented submissions.
Bobbie Christmas, book editor, author of Write In Style: Use Your Computer to Improve Your Writing, and owner of Zebra Communications, will answer your questions, too. Send them to Bobbie@zebraeditor.com.